Lackawanna County District Attorney v. Coss

Lackawanna County District Attorney v. Coss
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 20, 2001 Decided April 25, 2001
Full case name	Lackawanna County District Attorney, et al., Petitioners v. Edward R. Coss, Jr.
Citations	532 U.S. 394 (more) 121 S. Ct. 1567; 149 L. Ed. 2d 608
Case history
Prior	Defendant convicted sub. nom. Commonwealth v. Coss, 695 A.2d 831 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1997); petition for habeas relief denied, n°94-cv-01481 (M.D. Pa.); reversed and remanded, 204 F.3d 453 (3rd Cir. 2000); cert. granted, 531 U.S. 923 (2000).
Holding
Habeas relief is unavailable to state prisoners who challenge a sentence on the ground that it was enhanced on an unconstitutional prior conviction.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, Kennedy; Scalia (all but Parts III–B & III–C); Thomas (all but Part III–B)
Dissent	Souter, joined by Stevens, Ginsburg
Dissent	Breyer
Laws applied
28 U.S.C. § 2254

Lackawanna County District Attorney v. Coss, 532 U.S. 394 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court case. The case concerned a federal prisoner who sought to challenge his current sentence by arguing it was enhanced based on an unconstitutional prior conviction. A divided Court held that such challenges could not be brought. The decision was based on a reading of the statute in question, not a Sixth Amendment constitutional analysis.